My group and I had the opportunity to examine sound and how it emitted in various spaces that we may encounter as musicians, music enthusiasts or just everyday people. To make things simple, a sound is the disturbance of air through vibrations. Sound travels as what we like to call sound waves. The correct name a sound space is called an Acoustic Space. The way in which sound is heard within a particular space is affected by the object in which it emits from and the principles of absorption, reflection and/or diffraction by the walls enclosing the space.
Despite our enthusiasm to see how sound travelled within a multitude of spaces, we could only choose three. Throughout the rest of this page, we will explore the physical properties of these spaces and how we as both performers and listeners perceive sounds to travel in these spaces. Our song of choice for this piece investigation was a solo from Chet Baker's "Look for The Silver Lining". We have even thrown in some video so you can enjoy the experience as well. Enjoy!
Space #1 - Canadian Martyrs Catholic Church
Address: 38 Emerson Street in Hamilton Normal Use: Singing, Worship and celebrating mass Dimensions: 45' x 80' with approx. 30' arched ceilings Structure Materials: Stone tile floors, wood pews, backdrop and altar. The church also contains drywall as well as glass on the ceilings and walls. Decay Time: Very low decay. Lowest of all 3 Spaces
In this space we found the sound to be at its highest level of reverberation. This was due to the high ceilings that generally causes the sound to bounce back at a slower rate creating the phenomena of reverb. The excess reverb was also present due too the types of materials used. Glass in itself is a very non-porous material and bounces back pretty much any sounds...with the exception of those really high notes that break it. Another key thing to note was that the high level of reverb had a large effect on amplifying the slightest sounds and then the time in which it took for them to decay took was quite long.
Space #2 - The Practice Room
Address: 1280 Main Street West, McMaster University, L.R. Wilson Hall basement Normal Use: For Students practicing or teaching along with small ensembles. Dimensions: 8' x 10' with 8' ceilings Structure Materials: Carpet tile flooring, drywall with highly porous soundproofing panels added and gypsum tile ceiling. The door is also soundproofed and there was an upright piano in the space. Decay Time: Very high decay. Highest of all 3 Spaces
If you wanted to add a little reverb to accentuate all those beautiful warm tones in your singing or playing...this is not the place to do it. Within the practice space, what you play is what you get. The resonant chamber of your instrument of choice is the only thing that will be producing sound. Firstly, the volume at which you sing becomes dampened due to the sound engineered drywall and the binding of the room door. The size of this room also increased the time in which it took for dry sounds too. Practice rooms are perfect for pretty much just practice, as they give you the driest and unaffected version of any sound emitted inside.
Space #3 - The Stairwell
Address: 1280 Main Street West, McMaster University, TSH between 2nd floor and basement. Normal Use: For traversing building floors Dimensions: 10' x 5' x 50' Structure Materials: Stone tile flooring, cinderblock walls, drywall ceiling and metal hands rails Decay Time: Low to moderate decay
We know. This is a strange one. It is highly unlikely that we would be practising or performing in such as space but we tried it out for fun. A stairwell is essentially a very tall and hollow vertical pillar with the exception of the stairs themselves. Our performer was singing in a direction in which her voice would be travelling downwards creating a high reverb on the way down. However, she was very close to the top of the stairwell so it would not have been so reverberant on the way up. This would be creating a very off-kilter balance of sound. Alternatively, if she was singing at the exact central point between floors, there would be more of a balance to her ears and ours. However, if she sang facing towards the corner or closer to a wall the sound would have had less space to reverb and sound strange to both her and us.
Conclusion
Throughout our experiment, we learned how the way a sound registers to our ears depends on more than just the place it is emitting from. The way in which we perceive sound depends on the physical structure of the space. This includes the presence (or lack of) porous materials, size of the space and where the sound emits from within the space. Another factor is the dynamics. Does the sound have high or low frequencies? Does the sound itself posses a lot of overtones? Is the sound loud or quiet? These are just a few factors that affect sound within a space, but they are by far the most prominent ones when trying to understand and delve into how sounds occur in different areas.
Though we only had the opportunity to explore three spaces we certainly had a lot of fun discovering new things about sound. We also hope that you enjoyed the experience through our eyes and of course our ears.
Introduction
My group and I had the opportunity to examine sound and how it emitted in various spaces that we may encounter as musicians, music enthusiasts or just everyday people. To make things simple, a sound is the disturbance of air through vibrations. Sound travels as what we like to call sound waves. The correct name a sound space is called an Acoustic Space. The way in which sound is heard within a particular space is affected by the object in which it emits from and the principles of absorption, reflection and/or diffraction by the walls enclosing the space.
Despite our enthusiasm to see how sound travelled within a multitude of spaces, we could only choose three. Throughout the rest of this page, we will explore the physical properties of these spaces and how we as both performers and listeners perceive sounds to travel in these spaces. Our song of choice for this piece investigation was a solo from Chet Baker's "Look for The Silver Lining". We have even thrown in some video so you can enjoy the experience as well. Enjoy!
Space #1 - Canadian Martyrs Catholic Church
Address: 38 Emerson Street in HamiltonNormal Use: Singing, Worship and celebrating mass
Dimensions: 45' x 80' with approx. 30' arched ceilings
Structure Materials: Stone tile floors, wood pews, backdrop and altar. The church also contains drywall as well as glass on the ceilings and walls.
Decay Time: Very low decay. Lowest of all 3 Spaces
In this space we found the sound to be at its highest level of reverberation. This was due to the high ceilings that generally causes the sound to bounce back at a slower rate creating the phenomena of reverb. The excess reverb was also present due too the types of materials used. Glass in itself is a very non-porous material and bounces back pretty much any sounds...with the exception of those really high notes that break it. Another key thing to note was that the high level of reverb had a large effect on amplifying the slightest sounds and then the time in which it took for them to decay took was quite long.
Space #2 - The Practice Room
Address: 1280 Main Street West, McMaster University, L.R. Wilson Hall basementNormal Use: For Students practicing or teaching along with small ensembles.
Dimensions: 8' x 10' with 8' ceilings
Structure Materials: Carpet tile flooring, drywall with highly porous soundproofing panels added and gypsum tile ceiling. The door is also soundproofed and there was an upright piano in the space.
Decay Time: Very high decay. Highest of all 3 Spaces
If you wanted to add a little reverb to accentuate all those beautiful warm tones in your singing or playing...this is not the place to do it. Within the practice space, what you play is what you get. The resonant chamber of your instrument of choice is the only thing that will be producing sound. Firstly, the volume at which you sing becomes dampened due to the sound engineered drywall and the binding of the room door. The size of this room also increased the time in which it took for dry sounds too. Practice rooms are perfect for pretty much just practice, as they give you the driest and unaffected version of any sound emitted inside.Space #3 - The Stairwell
Address: 1280 Main Street West, McMaster University, TSH between 2nd floor and basement.Normal Use: For traversing building floors
Dimensions: 10' x 5' x 50'
Structure Materials: Stone tile flooring, cinderblock walls, drywall ceiling and metal hands rails
Decay Time: Low to moderate decay
We know. This is a strange one. It is highly unlikely that we would be practising or performing in such as space but we tried it out for fun. A stairwell is essentially a very tall and hollow vertical pillar with the exception of the stairs themselves. Our performer was singing in a direction in which her voice would be travelling downwards creating a high reverb on the way down. However, she was very close to the top of the stairwell so it would not have been so reverberant on the way up. This would be creating a very off-kilter balance of sound. Alternatively, if she was singing at the exact central point between floors, there would be more of a balance to her ears and ours. However, if she sang facing towards the corner or closer to a wall the sound would have had less space to reverb and sound strange to both her and us.
Conclusion
Throughout our experiment, we learned how the way a sound registers to our ears depends on more than just the place it is emitting from. The way in which we perceive sound depends on the physical structure of the space. This includes the presence (or lack of) porous materials, size of the space and where the sound emits from within the space. Another factor is the dynamics. Does the sound have high or low frequencies? Does the sound itself posses a lot of overtones? Is the sound loud or quiet? These are just a few factors that affect sound within a space, but they are by far the most prominent ones when trying to understand and delve into how sounds occur in different areas.
Though we only had the opportunity to explore three spaces we certainly had a lot of fun discovering new things about sound. We also hope that you enjoyed the experience through our eyes and of course our ears.